MarketTaito of Brazil
Company Profile

Taito of Brazil

Taito of Brazil was a pinball and arcade manufacturer located in São Paulo, Brazil.

History
The company originally started out as Clover Electronic Amusement in 1968, then became Taito of Brazil in 1972 by Abraham "Abba" Kogan, the son of the founder of the parent company Taito located in Japan. This subsidiary was originally an importer of existing U.S. and Japanese machine components to be assembled within the country. However, the taxation on imports had been growing steadily, and the government's belief that pinball is a game of chance and considered a gambling machine, led to strict import rules. By 1976, within rules created by the Electronic Processing Activities Coordinating Committee (CAPRE), it became illegal to import pinball machines. This created a problem, since the popularity of arcade games in Brazil had been growing exponentially for many years. In 1978, with an influx of cash from the parent company, Taito of Brazil was able to build new facilities to accommodate the new standard of electronic solid state games being produced by other manufacturers. Because of the import changes, companies in Brazil needed to become innovative, and began creating imitations, or close representations of already existing products that could no longer be acquired. Such was the case with a Taito-made game called, Oba Oba. The playfield layout was a copy of Bally Playboy but with altered artwork, and now based on a playhouse located in Rio de Janeiro. Where others were much closer to the original games, such as the case with Drakor, which is nearly identical to Gorgar from Williams Electronics. Taito of Brazil's most commercially successful pinball machine was Cosmic, a clone of Stern Electronics Galaxy. ==Taito of Brazil pinball machines==
Taito of Brazil pinball machines
Most manufacture dates are unknown Electro-mechanicalCheck MateCrown Soccer Special (1967) • Lucky Strike Solid state electronics Shown in parentheses is the original machine it is based on • Apache (Playfield layout the same as Fast Draw (Gottlieb, 1975)) • Black Hole (similar to Black Hole (Gottlieb, 1981)) • Cavaleiro Negro (similar to Black Knight (Williams Electronics, 1980)) • Cosmic (Nearly identical to Galaxy (Stern Electronics, 1980)) • Drakor (Nearly identical to Gorgar (Williams Electronics, 1979)) • Fire Action (Similar to Firepower (Williams Electronics, 1980)) • Fire Action Deluxe (playfield layout is the same as Firepower II (Williams Electronics, 1983) but contains the artwork of the original Firepower) • Football (similar to World Cup (Williams Electronics, 1978)) • Gemini 2000 (similar to Flight 2000 (Stern Electronics, 1980) in concept, however playfield layout is that of Centaur (Bally, 1981)) • Gork (Similar to Sky Jump (Gottlieb, 1974)) • Hawkman (Similar playfield layout as Fathom (Bally, 1981) but with different artwork and rules) • Hot Ball (Similar to Eight Ball (Bally, 1977)) • Lady Luck (Featuring similar artwork as Mata Hari (Bally, 1978)) • Lucky Strike (bowling theme) • Lunelle (Playfield layout is that of Alien Poker (Williams Electronics, 1980) but with different artwork) • Meteor (nearly identical to Meteor (Stern Electronics, 1979)) • Mr. Black (playfield layout is similar to Defender (Williams Electronics, 1982) but with a different theme) • Oba Oba (Playfield layout is the same as Playboy (Bally, 1978) but is themed after a club in Rio de Janeiro) • Polar Explorer (similar to Pinball Champ (Zaccaria, 1983)) • Rally (similar to Skateball (Bally, 1980) but missing a flipper) • Roman Victory (Roman themed game) • Shark (Nautical theme) • Shock (nearly identical to Flash (Williams Electronics, 1979)) • Snake Machine (some game elements taken from Viper (Stern Electronics, 1981)) • Space Shuttle (nearly identical to Space Shuttle (Williams Electronics, 1984) made under the label 'Mecatronics') • Speed Test (playfield layout of Vector (Bally, 1982) but with different artwork) • Sultan (nearly identical to Sinbad (Gottlieb, 1978)) • Sure Shot (similar to Eight Ball Deluxe (Bally, 1981)) • Titan (similar to Barracora (Williams Electronics, 1981)) • Vegas (Nearly identical to another Taito game, Lady Luck, but with alterations) • Volcano (similar to Volcano (Gottlieb, 1981)) • Volley (Volleyball themed game) • Zarza (similar to Xenon (Bally, 1980) but with different sound effects) ==Arcade games produced==
Arcade games produced
Shown in parentheses is the original game it is based on. • Sandwich/X-salada (BurgerTime) • Zig Zag (Dig Dug) • Kong (adapted from Crazy Kong, another Donkey Kong clone) • Big Flyer (Fly Boy) • Jump (Frogger) • Fantastic (Galaga) • Batalha Galactica (Galaxian) • Super Fantastic (Gaplus) • Star Crest (Moon Cresta) • Stock Car (New Rally-X) • Condor (Phoenix) • Piranha (Phunky Fish) • Polaris II (Polaris) • Commander (Scramble) • Fighting (Super Cobra) • Time Fighter (Time Pilot) • Olympics (Track & Field) • Caçapa (Video Hustler) • Columbia (Xevious) ==See also==
tickerdossier.comtickerdossier.substack.com